Platform vs the oil and gas lobby in Parliament over fossil fuel subsidies
Oct 24, 2013
Yesterday we were invited by the Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) to come in and give evidence as part of their inquiry into the nature of energy subsidies in the UK. We’d already made a written submission, but it was great to go in and put our points across in person. Great, and a little...
Shale Gas Exploitation in Algeria: Interview with an Algerian Journalist and Anti-Fracking Campaigner
Oct 18, 2013
Global Frackdown 2 will be taking place on Saturday 19th October. It is an initiative that is aiming to bring together community actions from all over the world to challenge hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, so we thought it would be good to hear from someone in Algeria about the situation there. Algeria has made some amendments...
Another oil spill reported in Ogoni territory, time to implement the UNEP report?
Oct 14, 2013
By AkpoBari Celestine, Head of Community at Social Action and National Coordinator of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum Almost a month after the Ogoni fishing community of Bodo rejected a 7.5 billion Naira offer for massive spills which Shell accepted liability for, Bunu, another Ogoni farming community in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State was...
A Night at the Museum – the Shell sponsored Fracking Quiz
Oct 14, 2013
Last week I joined Science Unstained for a trip to the Science Museum. Science Unstained worries about the corporate sponsorship of science communication – everything from BAE’s sponsorship of the unfortunately titled Big Bang Fair – an event for young scientists and engineers – to Atos designed degree courses. When they’ve had enough of worrying...
An oil and gas executive we can (sort of) get behind!
Oct 10, 2013
We’ve engaged in a lot of AGM activism over the years, mainly on Shell, BP and RBS, and we’ve been privileged to work alongside many different visitors from impacted communities who’ve come to these AGMs to speak ‘truth to power’. In recent years there’s been some really powerful interventions from people from Gulf Coast Communities devastated...
Richmond, California – winning against big oil
Oct 8, 2013
The most rewarding part of touring our book The Oil Road, for me, has been learning from experiences of people we visit. The book tour becomes part of the Road. Two weeks ago we presented the book in the San Francisco Bay Area, where tankers deliver crude from around the world, including the Ceyhan terminal...
#Oct7Proclaim – Solidarity with Idle No More
Oct 7, 2013
Today is the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the British Royal Proclamation, an historic document that legally mandated Canada to recognise Indigenous land rights. This document was signed by George III and this morning at 8.30am a group of 25 people met at the George III statue on Pall Mall as part of a Global...
Musicians react to oil sponsorship of the arts
Oct 1, 2013
Recently the call to challenge oil and associated industries’ sponsorship of the arts has been made by high profile musicians from around the world. On 8th September Boff Whalley, Chumbawumba front-man, described how he left Tate Britain part way through his special visit to the Lowry exhibition out of disgust at the number of BP...
Tribute to Nick Reeves, CIWEM – artist, environmentalist, activist
Oct 1, 2013
“BP, Shell and all other petrochemical corporations must be denied control of our arts and cultural institutions, right now.” Nick Reeves Earlier in the summer, we heard the shocking news that Nick Reeves, the vigorous Executive Director of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Managers, died after a severe stroke. He was only 60....
PACE’s failure to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its Council of Europe obligations leads to sharp increase in political arrests
Oct 1, 2013
This morning, I knelt handcuffed and gagged outside the European Court of Human Rights, alongside a picture of Rashadat Akhundov, a 29 year-old Azerbaijani activist with the N!DA civic movement who has been detained since March. Akhundov was initially arrested on politically motivated charges of weapon possession, but now faces more serious charges of inciting...
More Like People: Social Change Without The Pretentious Corporate Stuff
Sep 30, 2013
When did voluntary action become a ‘sector’? When did groups working to achieve social change start to have their own ‘Chief Executives’? When did ‘a seat at the table’ come to trump ‘an ear to the ground’? The professionalisation of social change has come with many costs: out-of-touch services, campaigns that can’t move beyond addressing...
News from Virginia – The most difficult retreat of all
Sep 24, 2013
Mika Minio-Paluello, Anna Galkina and James Marriott are travelling in North America as part of a book-tour to promote The Oil Road – Journeys from the Caspian to the City of London. You can find more info about their confirmed speaking dates in Virginia, the Bay Area, Toronto, Baltimore and Washington DC, New Orleans and...
